Bernice “Bernie” Geier has many happy childhood memories of Avalon from more than 70 years ago. During that period, Avalon was still in many ways an undeveloped slice of land nestled between the bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Matt Wallace remembers the trips to the fudge shop. He was a chocolate peanut butter guy. Nick Gomberg was chocolate marshmallow. They are the best of friends since childhood, but that does not mean they agree on everything.
They needle each other one moment, praise each other the next. Yes, they do finish each other’s sentences. With wit and wisdom and a dazzling gift for remembering details, who, what, when, where.
They are both blind. They share that total darkness, born without eyes, a condition called bilateral anopthalmia.

Sept. 28 dawned as a warm, early-fall Sunday at the Jersey Shore. The temperature sign on the Sturdy Bank Building on Dune Drive in Avalon already registered 72 degrees at about 6:15am. A man in a blue T-shirt and shorts was walking his dog briskly along Dune Drive.